China forbids blind investment in copper smelting industry

China will contain blind investment and low-level expansion in the energy-guzzling copper smelting industry by stricter macro-economic control and rationalising the industrial structure.

"The government will not approve the construction of copper smelting projects that go against the industrial policy," said an official of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a key economic body which oversees the country's economic development.

Newly-built and renovated copper smelting projects should be capable of producing 100,000 tonnes or more a year, and should have at least 25 per cent of the raw materials coming from their own mines, the commission said.

They are also required to have the rate of capital fund reach 35 per cent or more.

The energy consumption of a newly-built crude-copper smelting project should not exceed 550 kilograms of standard coal for one-tonne output.

Any companies that fail to meet the environmental protection standard will be shut down, the commission said.

Investment in the copper smelting industry has grown too fast due to rocketing copper price in international and domestic markets, it noted.

In the first 10 months of 2006, fixed-asset investment materialised in the copper smelting industry totalled 8.08 billion yuan (1.03 billion USD), up 72.3 per cent year on year, with investment in copper mining soaring 127.7 per cent to 3.37 billion yuan.